Our Social Impact
The Garbage City in Cairo
Known as Cairo Garbage City and is among the world's largest garbage districts, being home to 60,000 Zaballeen - garbage-collectors. These entrepreneurial garbage workers have achieved a remarkably efficient waste disposal system, recycling over 80% of the garbage collected daily, accounting to 3000 – 4000 tons. To further impress you, developed cities and multinational waste disposal corporations recycle only 20 - 30% of what they collect, leaving the rest to rot in giant landfills.
Their innovative recycling practices have intrigued people worldwide and Up-fuse is happy to be able to contribute!
Upfuse gave many of the women from the district the opportunity to earn stable incomes through flexible working schedules that acknowledge their responsibilities as hardworking wives and mothers. After vocational training, these amazing women surprised us by their enthusiasm and artistic touches that are an Upfuse signature in the material production phase, making The Garbage City in Cairo our hub for collecting, upcycling and storing raw and finished materials.
, Sudanese Migrants and refugees
Up-fuse constantly creates vocational training for migrants to teach them different sewing workshops.
Either this workshop being funded by Up-Fuse or funded by an organization, the aim is to help teach those women and include them in our production pipeline.
Small workshops around Cairo
We inhouse 80% of our production. All of which are done in Cairo, 20 minutes away from our office. However, we sometimes need more hands, so we outsource our production in different workshops around the city. Any workshop we work with, we make sure they empower local production and maintain our quality standards.
In-house Production
We employ full-time, expert local artisans and technicians who work with us on developing, prototyping and producing our different pieces. They are an integral part of the team and it’s their input that made Up-fuse’s vision a possibility. Together with these genius artisans, we managed to define our production techniques and create a one of a kind production process in respect to the nature of our up-cycled materials.. We are proud to be the ones who provided them with the tools, the space and the opportunity they needed to revolutionise their handicraft skills and excel further in their profession.